Luther Rawlings, 1929-2012

Luther Rawlings left his hometown of Memphis, Tenn., for Chicago when he was 14 years old without his mother's permission and with no designs on becoming a professional boxer.

"It was not preplanned," Rawlings told The Ring magazine in 2001. "It just seemed a pretty good way to make money."

Mr. Rawlings got into the sport in a roundabout way, when he was mistaken for the younger brother of his friend Ed Rollins, who accompanied him on his trip north. It was a night when Rollins, an amateur boxer, was matched against an opponent who didn't want to face him. The other boxer chose to instead fight Mr. Rawlings — who won a three-round decision.

He went on to become a top lightweight contender who once sparred with the great Sugar Ray Robinson.

Mr. Rawlings, 82, died Wednesday, March 7, of complications from Alzheimer'sdiseasein Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, said his daughter Roslyn Rawlings-Thomas. He lived in Chicago's Washington Heights neighborhood on the South Side.

Mr. Rawlings endured a tragic night in his ring career in 1949, when he knocked out fellow lightweight Talmadge Bussey in the ninth round at Arcadia Gardens in Detroit. Bussey, 26, suffered a brain hemorrhage and died the next day.

"That never set well with him," Mr. Rawlings' daughter said. "He was such a gentle giant."

Born Lucius Minor Jr., Mr. Rawlings legally changed his name to Luther Rawlings as a young amateur boxer. After that first trip to Chicago without his mother's knowledge, she allowed him to stay with an aunt in Bronzeville, where he attended DuSable High School.

Tall for a 135-pounder at 6-feet, Mr. Rawlings was a stand-up boxer with quick hands and a good right jab. His first professional fight was six-round decision over Augie Yarratt in June 1947, and for the next three years, he would develop the skill and stamina that made him a respected opponent and a top 10 boxer in the lightweight division.

Mr. Rawlings' early fights were at Marigold Gardens in the Lakeview neighborhood, which hosted two to three 10-round bouts every Monday night. He later performed on cards at famed venues like the Chicago Stadium, Madison Square Garden in New York and the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles.

"He was a terrific boxer," said Ed Kelly, former superintendent of the Chicago Park District. Kelly witnessed some of Mr. Rawlings' bouts at the Marigold, and later hired him as a mentor for the youth boxing programs at Fuller Park.

"He was a 10-round, top-rated fighter," Kelly said. "Anyone that fought the 10-round bouts at Marigold, they were a top fighter."

A year after the tragedy of Bussey's death, Mr. Rawlings in 1950 suffered two broken legs in a car accident.

Doctors placed him in a cast from the hips down and said he would never fight again, but he returned to the ring less than a year later and became the No. 1 contender for the lightweight title.

From 1951 to his initial retirement in 1956, Mr. Rawlings beat some of the world's best boxers. He went the distance against undefeated welterweight Johnny Saxton and lost a 10-round split decision to lightweight champion Jimmy Carter.

"He'd tell you about those fights almost punch for punch, and those fights were in the early '50s," said friend and retired boxer James Kitchen.

During the Korean War, Mr. Rawlings was stationed in Chicago where he boxed in exhibition bouts in Bronzeville's Eighth Regiment Armory under an arrangement set up by Justice James Parsons, the first African-American to serve as a federal judge in the U.S.

He opened an after-hours club in Bronzeville called Luther's Lounge, where customers included entertainers Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Duke Ellington and Count Basie, who would visit after neighboring hot spot Club DeLisa closed at 2 a.m.

In 1956, Mr. Rawlings married his wife, Georgia, a former girlfriend of singer Sam Cooke's. They settled in Washington Heights and were neighbors of famed radio disc jockey Holmes "Daddy-O" Daylie.

Mr. Rawlings still fought occasionally until 1959. After closing Luther's Lounge and briefly running a clothing boutique, he managed an Aronson Furniture store for 30 years until his retirement in the mid-1990s.

After retiring, he became a volunteer coach at Leo High School and mentored students alongside fellow boxing greats Herman Mills and Eddie Perkins.

"Luther was pretty smart in there working with those guys," said retired heavyweight Alonzo Johnson, who fought Muhammad Ali when the boxer was known as Cassius Clay. "The biggest thing a fighter could have is a guy like him in his corner because he knew the ropes."